A large portion of Australia’s fleet of trucks responsible for transporting food, fuel, and other resources may be left unable to operate as a shortfall of urea—a legally-required component in many modern diesel engines—grips international supplies.
This comes as the world’s biggest producer of urea, China, banned the export of the resource to prioritise domestic fertiliser supply—another key industry utilising urea—after previously supplying 80 percent of Australia’s urea demand.
Adblue, a brand of diesel exhaust fluid containing urea, is used throughout many of Australia’s diesel cars and trucks as part of strict European-based emission standards mandating the substance in order to help reduce harmful emissions.
While vehicles would still be capable of operating without urea if the mechanism was turned off, this process is illegal.
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) is demanding the Australian government explain how it will ensure sufficient supplies of AdBlue are available for the transport industry to allow for the continued operation of its vital cargo-transporting trucks.
“The supply of AdBlue is just as important as the supply of fuel. We need transparency about the stocks of material that are in Australia and the ability of suppliers to deliver the AdBlue we need throughout the first half of 2022.
Smith said he had received conflicting advice from the government and other sources.
“We were told [by the government] there was no need to panic about the supply of AdBlue, but no-one was prepared to back this assurance up with any numbers about AdBlue supply.”
“The Australian Trucking Association has been told that the supply of AdBlue is uncertain beyond February 2022.”
China banned urea exports on Oct. 11 after a severe energy shortfall left the communist country tight on coal supply. Urea is typically extracted from coal or natural gas.
